Just from his interviews, I think Sengun's the type of player who doesn't choke under pressure. In fact, he says he enjoys and thrives in it because he's used to playing under old school coaches in Europe. I don't see our other players with that same mentality. Jokic built the same way I think. He literally doesn't care about basketball yet he performs in crunch time situations like a real MVP.
Jokic is top 20 all time in rebounds, assists, and points per game in the playoffs. the guy was basically averaging a 30 point triple double in the playoffs. He’s one of the greatest we’ve ever seen. Sengun will be Sengun. And Sengun may be one of the greats too. But no one is Jokic and i can’t wait for Sengun to carve out his own legacy. Please don’t trade Sengun.
Where did you find the information that he patterned his game after Jokic? All he said was Jokic was his “idol”. Many if not all basketball players idolize Jordan or Lebron. Does this mean they necessarily play just like him or patterned their game after him? You can love the way a player plays and give your respect or devotion to but it doesn’t necessarily mean you pattern your game after them or sacrifice your own signature or identity. Players forge their own identities and are their own person. Even if Sengun “patterned” his game after Jokic he still is his own man. Jokic isn’t a perfect player and neither was Jordan or Lebron. Like I said Sengun just needs to focus on himself and work on his game and not worry about anyone else. It’s stupid and inferior to think or want to be just like someone else.
Sengun has way better moves. https://www.instagram.com/reel/CtTURL4K7XV/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA== DD
They are soooo apart it’s not even a joke. Sengun needs more size and an actual 3 point shot then we can discuss. I do hope Sengun can be even half or 3/4 of Jokic.
Not sure what’s the point of this thread. Can Jalen become Michael Jordan? Can Jabari become Kevin Garnett? Can Amen become Magic Johnson? And if not, then what? Do we trade them all?
Probably not. Jokic is one of the greatest to ever do it. He’s a generational talent. That’s as rare as it gets. Anything is possible but I think a realistic ceiling is probably Pau Gasol level player…
According to some folks here the question is whether or not Jokic could ever be as good as Sengun lol.
It is an meaningless question because nobody here would say looking at Jokic at 21 that he would become the player today. The chances were slim even for Jokic himself.
He's really a hybrid of Doncic and Jokic, maybe leaning a little more towards Jokic. That's not to say he'll peak as high as Jokic (never say never but unlikely), but just in terms of bringing a huge volume of efficient points and assists. I do think in 2 years he can average 27 points, 9 rebounds, 8 assists, 1.5 blocks on 50/36/85 splits while anchoring a top 10 defense. In 3-5 years who knows what's possible with good culture and coaching. You can comp him to whoever you like, but that's a tier above Sabonis. It's easily a top 2 player on a championship team.
Jokic shot 50% in the 10-16ft mid-range and 50% in the 16-23ft long 2s range in his first two years. People focus on the razzle dazzle stuff but they forget that even young Jokic was one of the top big man shooters in the league. Sengun needs to really improve his shooting before he can be compared to Jokic.
Yeah he's never going to be Jokic level shooter (or player) and this is just a silly bar to set. Why does he need to be Jokic? He just needs to be good and we should be happy we have a good player.
I don't think he is similar to either Jokic or Doncic right now, except for the great passing. He lacks the perimeter scoring to be compared to Doncic, Jokic, Sabonis cuz those guys are lethal from 3. He is also isn't as efficient as those guys only averaging 56% TS. On the flip side I think he is def better at post scoring than all those guys except maybe Jokic. As other posters said, let Sengun be Sengun. He is only 21 can still improve in all areas.
If you delve into the numbers and look at some context, you'll see that 'Jokic was already a top shooter and sengun needs to learn shooting' isn't much supported. Just for a quick comparison look at their 3rd year(Jokic one year older than the 3rd year Sengun) numbers: Jokic 8-16ft 0.9/2.0 44.7% 16-24ft 0.6/1.3 44.9% Sengun 8-16ft. 1.3/2.7 49.7 16-24ft 0.2 0.6 38.5% They both had 1.5/3.3 in the 8-24ft range. The reason for the first two year numbers you gave is jokic had an outlier season 2 in his developmental curve. He shot 62.8% on 2 pt fga compared to 54% in the first and third years. And players have different strengths. Sengun had 6.2 fta per 36 this season, a number. Jokic had only two seasons where he had a higher fta per 36, his 7th and 8th seasons. What Sengun lacks is the 3pt shot. And even there people are revisioning history with Jokic. In his first 5 years he was pretty much 31-32% 3pt shooter, except for one season where he shot 39.6%. I am pretty sure if we had a conversation back then, we would talk about that season as an outlier, rather than Jokic being a very good 3pt shooter. I am not saying Sengun is as good as a shooter as jokic was then. But he had a solid shooting season from 8-24ft range for his first ever year to take them. And Jokic was not already a very good shooter, and it was not evident that he would shoot better. Jokic constantly improved both his 2pt% and 3pt%, that's what made him great. And not just that he polished every part of his game, his passing, his defense etc. Outside of the outlier season, Jokic improved his 2pt% for 7 years in a row. That's ridiculous. As others have said, the jokic bar is a ridiculous bar for any player. But statistically, Sengun is doing quite fine compared to earlier years of Jokic or Sabonis and there is not much to argue against him in terms of stats. There is also a lot of promise there in terms of shooting. Sabonis is not lethal from 3. He is taking 1 3pt attempt per game for the last two years. Regardless of his percentage, I wouldn't call it lethal. His 3pt% for the seasons that he took more than 2 attempts is about 31% For the TS, Sabonis never had a usage like Sengun. Sengun's 21.1 ppg this season is already higher than Sabonis's any season. Sabonis has the higher ts but has a limited offensive skillset and that limits the team significantly. Sengun should easily be a 25 ppg player. I think Sengun is already the better player than Sabonis, which should be much clear at the end of this season.
